Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Tuna (Rigatoni alla Bolognese al Tonno)

| By: Julia Holzheim|

Ingredients

Yield: 2 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

• Half a package of Rigatoni or Tortiglioni pasta

• Half of a can of tuna (preferably in olive oil)

• Bottled tomato sauce

• Optional: Cherry tomatoes

• Salt

• Olive oil

• Basil leaves

Cooking Instructions

1. Optional (if you choose to include the cherry tomatoes): Cut them into four slices.

2. Drizzle olive oil in the pan in a way that covers a bit less than half of its entirety.

3. Place the whole clove of garlic in the pan.

4. Optional: Put the pieces of cherry tomatoes in the pan with the garlic.

5. Add a pinch of salt into the pasta sauce.

6. Let the tomatoes heat until they are soft.

7. Add the tuna into the pan. Break it up if the pieces are in big chunks.

8. Mix the tuna with the cut cherry tomatoes so all pieces are receiving the same amount of heat.

9. Boil water to cook the pasta.

10. Remove the piece of garlic from the mix of garlic, tuna, etc.

11. Add the pasta to the boiling water.

12. Optional: place a few basil leaves in the sauce to add a bit of taste.

13. Cook for the instructed amount of time listed on the pasta package. The time depends on the type of pasta used.

14. Add bottled tomato sauce to the pan. The quantity depends on your taste.

15. Sprinkle a pinch of salt into the sauce.

16. Leave the stove on low-medium heat.

17. Leave the sauce in the fire until most of the water of the tomato sauce has boiled down—around the time it takes for the pasta to be al dente.

18. Cover the sauce with a lid if the sauce bubbles too much. Make sure to not cover the pan completely, the air from the dissolved water needs to escape.

19. When the cooking time for the pasta is completed, drain the pasta.

20. Turn off the fire for the sauce.

21. Transfer the drained pasta into the sauce pan.

22. Mix the pasta and the sauce thoroughly.

23. Serve and eat while hot.

24. Enjoy!

Notes

• Preferably, buy the tuna in a market that sells fresh sea food. Canned tuna is the easiest option, and you will still have the same result, but the key aspect of this dish is the freshness of the ingredients, which adds to a delicious simplicity.

• If you wish to cook this dish the Sicilian way, you may add capers, parsley and olives.

• If you want to cook this dish the Emilia-Romagna way, you can add onions.

• In the first step, I say to heat a whole clove of garlic and then after a while remove it. However, if you really like the taste of garlic, you can cut the clove and mix it into the tomato sauce.